March 20, 2008

Reality (shows) bite

I've never been a fan of reality shows. Be it Idol, Survivor, Dance with the stars etc...I'm not sure why that's the case. Maybe because I don't believe that they're as real as they claim to be. Anyway, I thought I'd left the world of reality shows behind when I came back to India only to find the same shows broadcast here with a time delay.

Of late, to make matters worse, all regional language channels have started similar shows. Random people singing, dancing and acting in front of the so-called famous judges from the respective movie industries passing poor comments and judments hearing which the contestants mostly cry (either due to extreme joy at winning or extreme agony at being kicked out). The whole thing appears to be so false that I really wonder how so many people tune into these shows and sit through them. Almost every single Tamil channel that I know of has a show like this and everyone claims that their viewership is the highest level.

What does this say about the audience? And maybe the better question is what does this say about the ability of show producers? Its definitely easier to throw a bunch of people together and get them to sing or dance (or both) than to write a script, get real actors, direct it and sustain levels of interest for a prolonged period. Who is to blame for this slide in quality shows? Or is it a slide? Am I just being too cynical and critical because I don't like them?